Melody Maker Albums of the Year 1988

for LJagger re: a.r.kane

A.R. Kane - Green Hazed Daze - on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRz5YHPGDH4

AR Kane had their own label for a bit, didn't they? H.ark! Records. Butterfly Child, Papa Sprain and one other band I can't recall released a couple of EPs each in late '91/early '92. And there was a collaboration with Alison out of them Cranes for the Rough Trade Singles Club - In Rain?

I saw Papa Sprain play a 20min set of feedback supporting Pale Saints and Boo Radleys in Liverpool in '92. I think it may have been a nod to their mentors, whose own live shows were something similar, I believe.

I saw that tour in Hull. Thought Papa Sprain was complete shite at the time. Maybe I'd've got it now.

I was certainly in a minority in thinking it was ace.

This sounds pretty good!

I loved the queasiness of 69. i never did much for me - it seemed a little meeker and cleaner. It was one of the first CDs I ever bought and I often wondered if that had something to do with it (but let's not get into the supposed sterility of early CD).

i would like ar kane a lot better as an instrumental band, though the singing on 69 isn't as much of a stumbling block for me as "i". i've been listening to 69 and isn't anything back to back a lot in the last few days in the run up to the round house thing and they complement each other, ar kane really were much more of an obvious influence on the rank and file 'gazers than mbv weren't they, pale saints, early lush etc.

Amusing how low Daydream Nation is, considering how many UK bands started copying them and Dinosaur Jr. within the next few years.

I think this album holds up pretty well too:
Eleventh Dream Day - Prairie School Freakout

Also missing Camper Van Beethoven, Naked Raygun, Slayer, Ambitious Lovers, Souled American, Woodentops, Napalm Death, Kreator, Feelies, Mano Negra, For Against, and there were certainly plenty of other great hip hop albums in addition to PE:

N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton
EPMD - Strictly Business
The Jungle Brothers - Straight Out The Jungle
Boogie Down Productions - By All Means Necessary
Ultramagnetic MCs - Critical Beatdown

Overall the list is a disgrace ;)

Would add the first Galaxie 500 to the list of absentees as well, not that we're short of indie here.

Ljagger: two a.r.kane 1988 tracks on myspace

http://www.myspace.com/arkane69

Baby Milk Snatcher
Sperm Whale Trip Over

I really, really, really, really loathe The Pogues. Sorry everyone. They're the fucking worst. Trad-Oirish fakey dullard bollocks from some public-school dropout with disgusting, avoidable health issues and a bullshit mythology.
What "mythology" are you talking about?

Hard-drinking fast-living Irish scallywags who sing the country's soul through the medium of folk

*vomits*

Oh.

I agree with the puzzlement expressed here regarding All About Eve. I quite liked them at the time, bought their first couple of 12"es...but I tried to play this stuff again more recently and was utterly baffled as to what was so wonderful about it. It was a nice Vaughan Oliver sleeve, though, on D for Desire.

Also it's kinda nice to see Wonder Stuff get a bit of a kicking...I loved "Never Loved Elvis" at the time, but yeah that first album was kinda annoying and they totally had no groove! I've never felt much of an urge to pull their stuff out, really. Can't remember a thing about whatever the album was after NLE.

I think I'll give A.R. Kane another try when I get home.

I still have a soft spot for House of Love, but I'll always maintain their first album is their weakest. Nick Cave's Tender Prey is a mighty force of nature. So is House Tornado, but I'll probably vote for Cocteaus.

Daydream Nation is one of my least fave SY albums. I really should give Live Skull a go one of these days. Back then I ignored bands like them, but considering I've come around to Sonic Youth a lot since then, maybe I would feel differently now.

It may be the boring, indie-canon choice - but Daydream Nation in a walk. Surfer Rosa in second. After that, there's not much I feel strongly about.

I do remember some of those other Nate Starkman label bands. I too had that Red Temple Spirits cassette! Don't remember liking it much. I liked Drowning Pool a lot, though especially when they lost their awful singer and put out the gorgeous, instrumental Aphonia album which I still play today. Then they got yet another awful singer and became the Mumbles!

Hmmm, at the time the answer would have been Bug or House Tornado.

In the 90's it would have been Surfer Rosa (dated a girl who liked the Pixies) or Isn't Anything.

Now it's Spirit of Eden.

I've said this in other threads, but that Live Skull album is near the top of my list of "albums that you wish you liked cause the band has a cool name and it has a cool cover, and theoretically it ought to be great." My picks for '88 in that vein would be Rat at Rat R's "Stainless Steel" EP and "Gutterlight" by Dustdevils.

'In Gut's House' by Ut and the first Band of Susans go together with that lot too, both great records.

Love that BoS album!

Other "Bug" from '88 worth mentioning is the Das Damen song from the very fine Marshmellow Conspiracy EP. That's another '88 vintage thing I still play occasionally.

I was thinking "how can Spacemen 3 not be on the list" but I see there was only a live album that year.

Yes, Band Of Susans - Hope Against Hope; what an album, what a title track!

The UK didn't get Straight Outta Compton until '89 but otherwise I totally agree with fastnbulbous' hip hop list except I would also add Follow The Leader by Eric B & Rakim.

And really To The Batmobile Let's Go by the Todd Terry Project should be VERY high up there somewhere (and the Royal House album).

And Spillane by John Zorn and Virgin Beauty by Ornette and...

There was a Royal House album? I just didn't get "Party People" at all when it came out, in much the same way that I didn't get "Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel" - it was a couple of jumps ahead of me, but I had an underlying hunch that there was something worth perservering with. Then "Can You Feel It" - which was virtually a remix of "Party People" anyway - came out and just exploded. It was my biggest floor filler for two or three weeks, just after "Big Fun" and just before "Voodoo Ray". And then there was Swan Lake, Black Riot, Todd Terry Project... ah, Todd-mania, happy days...

Yep - the Royal House album was entitled Can You Party? Standout track: "A Better Way" with vocals by the splendidly-named Ian Star.

Wow, Hope Against Hope. There's an album I hadn't heard in nearly 20 years. I think I still have it on tape, which includes Love Agenda from the following year, and might even be better. Time is right for a reissue. Wired For Sound 1986-93 was issued in '95.

No Critical Beatdown
No Blood Fire Death
No Bananarama's greatest hits
No I Am Kurious Oranj
No I'm Your Man
No Reek of Putrefaction
No South of Heaven
No Great Adventures of Slick Rick
No Don't Be Cruel
No Lead Me On
No Straight Outta Compton
No ...And Justice For All, for the fucking love of Christ

this list wasn't even there in '88

MC covers Compton a couple of posts up

indeed, it made #21 the following year

Never thought I'd see a poll where my two favorite albums are by Public Fucking Enemy and Sonic Fucking Youth, but hey, there's a first time for everything (and they're both pretty good albums, obviously.)

I'm surprised Melody Maker panned It Takes a Nation of Millions... when it first came out. Is the review available online anywhere? I'd love to read it.

ISTR Reynolds opining that "Millions" was too self-referential and too concerned with PE's treatment at the hands of the media and that it was a distinct disappointment after "Bum Rush". I thought he was wrong then and I think he was even wronger now.

also there was insufficient bliss/ocean input unlike e.g. Strafe Fur Rebellion and Legendary Pink Dots.

At the end of 1988 I would have said Green. By 1991 I'd gone back and discovered Isn't Anything, Surfer Rosa, and Daydream Nation. I'm struggling to choose between those ones now.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I have 13 of those and they're all great - or they were the last time i played them in about 1989.
Honourable mentions - pixies ,mbv yawn, amc, thin white spunk, muses, kane

Seeing as it's missing Rudimentary Peni and Napalm Death, it's gotta be Jane Siberry . Sounded like nothing else to me when I first heard it

Don't believe the Hype

No-one into Revolting Cocks? I'm sort of surprised by that.

Have still never heard any Jane Siberry. Anyone care to tell me about that record?

I couldn't decide whether to vote for RevCo or Skinny Puppy, and forgot to vote for either.

ugh someone voted the wonderstuff

Wow Marcello voted for AR Kane? I must adjust my assesment of him.

Sorry that sounds rude. I didnt have a bad assesment to begin with. But anyway.

I've had bad and good assessments of Marcello. I wouldn't be quick to pass judgement with that dude. To this day I have no idea how I stand about him. ILX might be a little more entertaining with his presence, though. He was noticeably silent on that Phil Spector thread. I somehow he'll return to ILX for awhile, if at all.

DOUBT